Slide fastener attachment



y 26, 1959 KN. MAIO 2,887,752

SLIDE FASTENER ATTACHMENT Filed Feb. 25, 1957 FIG. 2

INVENTOR.

VBY

ATTORNEY United States Patent SLIDE FASTENER ATTACHMENT.

Nicola Maio, Somerville, Mass.

I f Application February 25, 1957, Serial No. 642,162

" 1 Claim. (Cl. 24-20515) This invention relates to an attachment forslide fastener devices of the class which includes a pair of stringertape elements which are moved into and out of interlocking relationshipby means of a metal slider having a tongue or pull element pivotallysecured at the upper sidethereof. The attachment of the invention isdesigned to be temporarily engaged with the slide tongue when-thestringer tape elements are in a fully opened position. The attachment.remains attached while the slide is operated to close the stringer tapeedges and thereafter is disengaged and removed.

In the application of slide fasteners to closure openings of the typecommonly employed at the back of a ladies dress, for example, itfrequently is the case that the slidefastener tongue becomes positionedin a highly inaccessible location at the lower back portion of the dressso that the person wearing the dress finds it difficult to close theslide. In order for the wearer to operate the slide fastener and move itfrom such an open position into a raised fully closed position, thewearer must reach around to the back of the dress into a somewhatawkward position in order to grasp the slide fastener tongue. As theslide fastener is pulled upwardly, there is reached a point at which itis difiicult for the wear to maintain a hold upon the tongue. Inaddition, asthe wearer pulls the fastening upwardly into a closedposition, the slide may, in some'instances of use, pass between thedress and an adjacent undergarment with the result that the slidefastener components frequently become jammed or engaged with portions ofthe undergarment rendering further movement of the slide fastenerdifiicult if not impossible.

' Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to deal with thisproblem and to devise an attachment for use with a slidejfastener bymeans of which the operation of pulling the closure opening of a ladiesdress into a fully closed position may be greatly facilitated and theoccurrence of jamming or interference with adjacent garment portions maybe avoided.

Another object of the invention is to provide a slide fastenerattachment which is quickly and conveniently assembled with a slidefastener and which may, when desired, be readily detached. Still afurther object of the invention is to provide a slide fastener tongueenclosure which may be employed as a means of aiding engagement of theattachment therewith and which may be permanently maintained on a slidefastener tongue to provide novel decorative effects.

These and other objects and novel features may be more fully understoodand appreciated from the following description of a preferred embodimentof the invention selected for purposes of illustration and shown in theaccompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a fragmentary elevational view of a ladies dress with aclosure opening formed therein along a back portion of the dress andfurther illustrating a slide fastener together with the attachment ofthe invention in one operative position for closing the slide fastener;

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Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic view showing the attachment in use;

Fig. 3 is a central cross-sectional view of the attachment;

Fig. 4 is a view in cross-section taken on the line 7 4-4 of Fig. 1; r

- Fig. 5 is an elevational view of another slide fastener attachment foruse in securing the attachment to the slide fastener; and

Fig. 6 is a cross-section taken on the line 6-6 of Fig. 5.

Referring more in detail to the drawings, attention is directed to Fig.1 wherein I have shown a conventional slide fastening arranged at theback of a garment such as a ladies dress shown in an open position. Asnoted therein, numeral 2 indicates a ladies dress having an opening atthe back thereof which is normally closed by bringing together the twoclosure sections 6 and 8. As is customary in the use of slide fasteners,a pair of stringer tapes 10 and 12 are sewed or otherwise secured to therespective edges of the dress sections 6 and 8. Arranged to move thesetapes into interlocking relationship is a slide 14 of a constructionwell known in the art and furnished with a pivoted tongue or pull 16.

In accordance with the invention, I provide an attachment consisting ofa releasable fastening 18 which is adapted to be releasably engaged onthe pull 16, as suggested somewhat diagrammatically in Fig. 1. In onepreferred embodiment, the fastening 18 may consist essentially of a pairof spring loaded jaws which are shaped with a pair of narrow taperingteeth 18a and 18b of a i venient manner is an elongated pullextension'consisting of a. pull chain or cord 19 of some suitablematerial. This elongated pull member is of a length of sufficientmagnitude such that it may extend from the slide fastener in a fullyopened position at the lower section of the dress 2 upwardly to a pointwhere it may be grasped conveniently by the wearer of the dress byextending one arm up over the shoulder portion of the dress, assuggested diagrammatically in Fig. 2. In this position, the chain orcord may begripped readily and pulled upwardly drawing the slidefastener into a fully closed position. At this point, the wearer of thedress may reach over the shoulder and compress the spring-held jaws ofmember 18 to disengage the attachment.

This operation above described may be reversed to open the slide, i.e.,the spring jaws are opened and allowed to close into engagement with theslide fastener. Thereafter, the chain or pull cord 19 is allowed to hangdownwardly and is grasped from a point at the lower back of the dressand the slide is pulled downwardly to open the dress sections 6 and 8.The slide is then again disengaged.

I have found that, while the above-described operations may be carriedout satisfactorily in some instances of use with only a pair of jaws,there may, in other cases, be advantageously employed a special shieldelement which I have devised to prevent interference between thestringer tapes and an undergarment occurring immediately below the dresswith which the slide member necessarily is in contact as it passes alongan upward path to efiect a closure.

This shield element is denoted by the numeral 20 and is indicated inFig. l, as well as being shown more in detail in Fig. 3. Essentially,the shield element 20 consists of a relatively thin, flat body portionwhich may be made of plastic material or some other suitable material.At one end, the flat body portion is formed with a very short tubularsection 20a. As the body portion extends away from this tubular section20a, it increases in width to a magnitude such that it exceeds thecombined widths of the stringer tapes and 12 in a closed position ofthesemembers, as is clearly shown in Fig. 1. This shield element may beconveniently attached to the springloaded jaws 18 in any convenientmanner such as, for example, by means of a screw fastening which passesthrough the flat body portion and then is engaged in one end of thespring-loaded jaws. A more convenient method of attachment consists inthreading the pull chain 19 through the tubular section 20a. In suchcase, the tubular section 20a is formed of a size such that the member18 will be snugly held therein and yet may be removed when so desired.Various other ways of attaching the shield to the fastening 18 may beresorted to, as indicated below.

In accordance with the invention, the shield 20 is preferably arrangedon the fastening 18 at the lower side thereof and in such a manner thatportions of the shield may extend along and overlap the undersurfaces ofthe stringer tapes 10 and 12, as suggested in Fig. 1. In such aposition, the shield will also project downwardly well beyond the bottomof the slide 14. By means of this arrangement, it will be observed thatthe shield 20, on being attached to the slide fastener pull 16, will,when the dress is put on, tend to lie between the dress 2 and anundergarment 22 (Fig. 2) in such a position that the shield mayconstantly slide between the dress 2 and the undergarment 22 as thefastener is being closed. Thus, there is no opportunity for the stringertape and slide fastener components to contact the undergarment and causejamming as the slide fastener is closed. This arrangement of parts maybe more clearly seen from an inspection of Fig. 4 in which the shield-20is shown in sliding engagement with an undergarment 22 while closing thesections 8 and 6 of the dress 2 by means of slide fastener 16.

In attaching the device of the invention either with or without theshield 20 to the slide fastener 14, I may also desire to provide aspecial enclosure 24 which is formed with an internal slot designed tofit over and tightly engage around the pull 16, as suggested in Fig. 6.The enclosure body 24 may, for example, consist of a plastic materialhaving a construction substantially as shown in which internal ribbedportions 24a and 24b resiliently engage through the opening 16a of thepull 16. The

enclosure body 24 may also be formed with an extension or projecting end26 with which the jaws 18a and 18b of the member 18 may be engaged. Thisextension 26 may be formed in various ways. For example, it may beformed with an opening 28 through which the jaws 18a and 13b tareinterlocked. Since this opening 28 is appreciably larger than the pullopening 16a, it will be appreciated that engagement and disengagement ofthe jaws may be greatly facilitated thereby. In addition to the opening28, the extension 26 may also be formed with a thickened mid-section tocomprise a rib or stop for facilitating engagement by various othergripping devices. It is also intended that the enclosure body 24 may bemade up of attractively colored plastics, for example, in colors whichmatch or blend with the color of the dress to which the slide fasteneris attached. Therefore, I may desire to use the enclosure body 24 as asimple slide fastener pull accessory which is snapped onto the pull andleft there for permanent use, serving as either a decorative member oras a means of covering up an unsightly metal part. While I have shownpreferred embodiments of the various forms of the invention, it shouldbe understood that other structures and arrangements may be utilizedwithin the scope of the appended claims.

Having thus described my invention, What I claim is: An attachment for aslide fastener of the class which I includes a pair of stringer tapessecured to a garment and a slide element for moving the stringer tapesinto and out of locking relationship to manipulate a closure in thegarment, said attachment comprising a shield member consisting of arelatively thin, flat body portion having integrally formed at one endthereof a tubular extension,

a holding device consisting of a pair of resiliently pivoted jawsreceived on the thin, fiat body portion and adapted to be engaged withthe slide, the pivoted section of said jaws being protectively containedin the tubular extension, a pull chain device secured to the pivotedjaws and threaded through said tubular extension, said tubular extensioncooperating with the holding device when a pull is exerted on the pullchain to locate the thin, flat body portion in a slightly archedposition against inner surfaces of adjacent stringer tape sectionswhereby the stringer tapes are guided into interlocking relationship toone another and, simultaneously, shielded from sur faces underlying thesaid garment.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS2,271,899 Miller Feb. 3, 1942 2,549,589 Flynn Apr. 17, 1951 2,663,588Scheldorfer Dec. 22, 1953 2,758,947 Feighner Aug. 14, 1 956

